Sanders Outraised Clinton in February and Has 56% of His Money from Small Donors

51% of Clinton’s Money Has Come from Donors Who Maxed Out vs. 16% for Cruz and 3% for Sanders

Historical Tables Included for Comparison

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The Campaign Finance Institute today released updated graphs and tables showing receipts, cash on hand, and cumulative individual donor data through February 29st, 2016 for the campaign committees of the candidates running for President in 2016 (see Table 1 & 2). The tables are drawn from monthly disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on March 20. Tables 3 through 6 (listed below) provide parallel information for the elections of 2008 and 2012.

Bernie Sanders outraised Hillary Clinton in February by more than $10 million dollars (Table 1). The $43.5 million dollars is also more than what Clinton raised ($34.6 million) in February 2008, but not as much as the $54.1 million President Obama raised during that same month. Cumulatively, Sanders still has trails Clinton by over $20 million, and had $10 million less cash on hand on February 29th. Donald Trump has put almost $25 million of his own money into his campaign so far – not yet as much as the $44.7 million Mitt Romney spent in 2008 or the $37.9 million Steve Forbes spent in 1996.

Sanders continues to do well with donors giving small amounts and the trend line in his donor distribution shows that donors are giving repeatedly to the campaign. For all of 2015, 64% of his donors gave less than $200, and 27% gave between $201-999. As donors have contributed repeatedly and crossed the $200 threshold those percentages have shifted to the point where at the end of February 56% of donors have given less than $200. Another 32% have given in the $201-999 range.

Hillary Clinton had increased her small donor fundraising, raising $10.5 million in unitemized contributions in February, and has moved from 19% at the end of 2015 to 21% at the end of February. Her under-$1,000 total is 36%, still far behind Sanders 88%. Slightly more than half of Clinton’s money comes from donors who have given her $2,700 and who therefore cannot give again to her campaign committee for the primaries. On the Republican Side, Ted Cruz raised 62% of his money form under $1,000 donors. Only 16% of Cruz’s money, and 3% of Sanders’, has come from donors who have maxed out.

See Table 2 for a full breakdown of all of the presidential candidates. The five currently active candidates (two Democrats and three Republicans) are summarized in the pie charts shown below after the list of tables.

All percentages are based on aggregate donor amounts. Donors who began with unitemized contributions before crossing the $200 disclosure threshold have all of their money counted among the above-$200 donors.

Note: This release was updated on April 22nd 2016, the original undercounted Ted Cruz's small donor contributions.

The Campaign Finance Institute is the nation's pre-eminent think tank for objective, non-partisan research on money in politics in U.S. federal and state elections. CFI's original work is published in scholarly journals as well as in forms regularly used by the media and policy making community. Statements made in its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of CFI's Trustees or financial supporters.